Sacred Connections Scotland

The Wave of the Future

The Light and Sound Teachingsand the true Gospel of Jesus the ChristBarry Dunford

In the ancient mystery schools there was always an inner and outer teaching, i.e. the esoteric and exoteric teaching. The innermost esoteric teaching was known as the Light and Sound – the inner sound or Word (Logos) of God. This esoteric corpus is clearly identifiable as the core of the mystery teachings in the Gospel attributed to St. John the Apostle. This Gospel commences “In the beginning was the Word” (Sound), and the writer then goes on to mention the Light, which is clearly secondary, as an outworking or effect of the primary Divine Cause which in Greek is called the Logos or Divine Word, a universal Sound Current which is at the heart of all creation and sustains all Life.

In his enlightening book Yoga and the Bible (1963), Joseph Leeming quotes the first verse of the Gospel according to St. John: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God‘. and comments: “These moving and meaningful statements made by St. John in describing the Divine Word of God are among the best known in the entire New Testament. But it is safe to say that their true meaning is one of the least known of all facts in the entire teachings of the Bible…. The Word of God is, and always has been the most important factor in the teaching of the Masters-of the teachings of Jesus as well as of the Masters of today. It is mentioned under different names in the scriptures of all the great world religions, though its meaning has been known to but few of the followers of these religions. The Hindu scriptures call it Anahat Shabd, or the Unstruck Music, and also Akash Bani, the Celestial Voice. Mohammedans call it Kalma, or Word, and Kalam-i-Ilahi, or Voice of God. Zoroaster speaks of it as Sraosha, meaning ‘the Sound from the Sky.’ The early Greek philosophers who had learned the spiritual secrets of India, refer to it as the Logos, while some called it the music of the spheres. Socrates speaks of it as an inner sound that transported him to realms of transcendent and divine beauty. The Masters of today call it Nam, meaning Name or Word (of God); and also Shabd, which means Sound, or more particularly, spiritual Sound. In the English language the Word is called the Sound Current or the Audible Life Stream….

“The Audible Life Stream is, as the Masters have pointed out, God’s ‘unspoken language’, and His ‘unwritten Word’. The term Sound Current is new to most western readers, and because of this fact, its identity with familiar terms used in the Bible must be made abundantly clear. The Sound Current is the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost of the Bible and is the same thing as ‘the Word’ spoken of by St. John…. The Holy Trinity of the Church, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, is the Trinity of the Supreme Father, the living Master, and the Sound Current…. Thus, to become ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ is to hear and participate in the Audible Life Stream, to become absorbed in it and become one with it or one with God…. There is an inspiring concept associated with the fact that the Master is one with the Supreme. This is that every man is a potential Saint, and is therefore potentially identical with God. He needs only development and realisation. To become one with the Father is the supreme goal of all human evolution, and the sole object of our being here on earth is that we may grow to the spiritual stature of the Masters, who are the true supermen. ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.’ Matthew 5:48. Men only require a living Master to help them to develop and reach this goal. They need but the light of Mastership in another man to kindle the light within themselves.”

Joseph Leeming continues: “The great Masters of all ages have all taught the same doctrine, the identical method of freeing the soul from the fetters of mind and matter and of entering the kingdom of heaven while still living on earth in the physical body. The Way that was taught by Jesus to his closest disciples is the Way that is taught today by the perfect living Masters. The Way is called here the path of the Masters or, because it is a scientific method of achieving continuous and certain spiritual progress and successively higher states of consciousness, it is called the spiritual science of the Masters…. The spiritual science or yoga of the Masters, the doctrine of Him who sends the Masters to this world, is the supreme science of all sciences, for it deals with the ultimate truths of man’s nature and destiny, and the ultimate purpose of all human life. It teaches the student, by a method of guided scientific experimentation, how to make direct and permanent contact with his Creator. It is a science based on laws which, though they have always existed, are not generally known. And it is the greatest of all sciences, because it turns ordinary mortals into divine beings…. No blind belief or blind faith is called for when one is following this path. As the student follows the instructions given by the Master at the time of initiation and subsequently, he obtains through his own inner experiences definite proof of his spiritual progress and positive confirmation of the truths enunciated by Jesus and all other great spiritual teachers.

“Many people in the western world who have heard or read of the path of the Masters have asked the pertinent question: what is its relation to Christianity? The answer is this: ‘the path is identical with Christianity, if by that term we mean the spiritual teachings of Jesus. The teaching of the Masters does not change with time. It is the same in the past, the present, and the future. The living perfect Masters of today teach precisely the same spiritual truths as those that Jesus taught when he walked the earth.’ The spiritual science of the Masters, however, is not Christianity, if by that term we mean the system of dogma and theology that was created by men other than Jesus during the centuries that followed his presence here on earth…. In every instance, the esoteric teaching is not a man-made one, but a God-made one. For in each instance the founders of religions and the genuine Masters have taught, not their own doctrine, but the doctrine or system of Him who sent them to this world. And this is the age-old natural and perfect system designed by the Creator for the express purpose of liberating man from the bondage of the body and mind and enabling him to enter and enjoy the kingdom of heaven here and now as well as in the future. It is only the living Masters who can show us how to do this here and now, however, while all religions point to the hope of it after death.” (Yoga and the Bible)

In his six volume magnum opus, Treasury of Mystic Terms (2003), John Davidson records (vol. 3): “Shabd(a)…. mystically, the Word of God, the Creative Word as the divine Sound, the Sound Current, the transcendent Melody, the creative Power, the source of all creation; also found in such expressions as anahata Shabda and anhad Shabd (unstruck Sound), adi Shabd (primal Sound), mvl Shabd (root Sound, essential Sound), Shabd Dhun (Melody of the Sound), Shabd Dhara and Shabd ki Dhar (Sound Current), sat Shabd (true Word), and so on…. The Shabd is the active and creative Power of God. Every particle of the creation is in motion, vibrating. Without this motion, it could never exist. As physicists delve deeper into matter, they have discovered that the smaller the ‘particle’, the faster it appears to vibrate. Even an apparently inert stone moves and changes constantly within itself because of this vibration. The speed of this vibration is exceptionally rapid. Scientists acknowledge that they have no idea what keeps the physical creation in this state of perpetual motion. The Power by which creation is continually sustained and maintained in existence is unknown to science. Mystics say that this Power is the Shabd, the primal Vibration of God that projects the creation and keeps it in existence…. the mind and soul, when concentrated and awakened inside, possess the faculty to hear this primal Vibration. This is the divine Sound, the true Cosmic Music. The inner faculties also see this celestial Power as light.”

Davidson further says: “The physical universe seems to be in perpetual motion, yet why and how this is so is a mystery. The mystics’ answer to this conundrum is that, underlying all the movement and multiplicity in creation, there is one primordial Vibration, present as the divine essence, not only within all things, but within all souls as well. This mystic Sound, also called the Sound Current or Sound of God, is the ever present, divine creative Power – the means by which the Supreme Being has projected His creation. It is this that gives life, power and movement to everything. The twentieth-century mystic, Maharaj Sawan Singh, writes: ‘This Sound or Melody pervades all. It is even inside stones and wood, as these are made up of atoms, and motion is inherent in them. Because of this motion, everything constantly undergoes change. The motion itself is the cause of change. In reality, everything is changing. This world changes every hour, every minute and every second. Whether we know it or not, a stone continues to change. There is motion in it. Sound is a necessary corollary of motion and, therefore, a stone is not free from the Sound. Both the bodies that we see and those we do not see are in motion. There is, therefore, Sound in all, and the Sound is the essence of all… This Melody pervades all and is the life and sustenance of all. This current of consciousness is very subtle. It requires equally subtle ears to hear it.’ (Philosophy of the Masters by Maharaj Sawan Singh)”

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” – Jesus the Christ. Interestingly, in Aramaic, the native language of Jesus, “The word for ‘hear’ can also mean an inner Sound or mystical vibration.” – Neil Douglas-Klotz, an Aramaic scholar (The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus, 1999)

The Light and Sound teachings were taught by Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Lao Tse, Jesus the Christ, the Sufi sages, Rumi and Hafiz, the Indian saints Kabir and Nanak, and more recently the 19th and 20th century Light and Sound Masters in India, including Sawan Singh Ji and Charan Singh Ji. Currently, the Light and Sound teachings are being taught in the West, under the name MasterPath, by Sri Gary Olsen, an American of Swedish descent. An objective investigation of the MasterPath teaching clearly reveals the present continuity of the Living Master tradition. Indeed, the close parallels between the recorded true teachings of Jesus the Christ and Sri Gary Olsen are remarkably striking. In fact, the core essence of both teachings are identical, revealing the one Divine spiritual truth which is consistent throughout the ages via the spiritual teachings of the true Light and Sound Living Masters.

Sri Gary Olsen writes: “The greatest detriment to most seekers can be summed up as a misunderstanding of the return of the Messiah, known as the second coming of Christ to the Christian, the return of the Maitreya to the Buddhist, the Lost Word to the Masons, or the Missing Tablet to the Hopi Indians. These groups all view this transcendental prophecy as an event that transpires at the end of this world, or a phenomenon that happens within time and space on this plane of action…. The spiritual seekers of today, whether they embrace the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, the Talmud, the Shastras, or even the Adi Granth, are all following deceased Masters. Sustenance cannot be received from a dead Master any more than an infant can receive nourishment from a dead mother.” Clearly, as potential disciples, living human beings require a living master to instruct them, as opposed to dead or ascended masters who are unable to properly communicate the Divine spiritual truth to them.

Sri Gary Olsen continues: “Those Masters of the past who have served the Divine in their respective missions have since left this theater of action, and they no longer hold the position of the Living Master. These illustrious souls who once served as the true Sons of God are no longer in a physical body, and thus are unable to reactivate the latent spiritual energies within the seeker today, for only a Living Master can do so. Those individuals who rely on ascended Masters lose much of the help and guidance available to them, for without a physical vehicle, their Master is vastly limited. The seeker must have a Living Master in order to be initiated into the cosmic mysteries. The Saints of the past gathered and initiated those souls who were ready for the ascent in their time, but now, centuries later and with ever-changing conditions, their reach is limited and without strength. The average spiritual seeker in the West is not accustomed to the need or requirement of a Living Master. In the East, this spiritual truth is ingrained into the consciousness from early youth through adulthood, but in the West, and especially in America, the general populace has relied mainly on the ascended Master, Jesus the Christ. Although Jesus did channel the Light and Sound Teachings on the physical plane two thousand years ago, He is unable to do so in the present. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Christianity cannot furnish the true seeker with the necessary requirements for commencing the inner journey back to God.”

Sri Gary Olsen further observes: “The world is never without a Living Master, though He may escape the public eye. There is always a Living Master present who has been chosen to represent and instruct those presently incarnated souls who have readied themselves through past efforts. When the student is ready, the Master will appear. You will be contacted through a book, friend, vision, dream, or some other avenue especially designed for you. Divine law demands that when the seeker is ready to hear about the Light and Sound Teachings, in whatever age, country, or body one finds oneself, one will be approached in some manner and informed of the upcoming journey….

“The Light and Sound Doctrine has its roots and origin within this Oneness of all life, unequivocally stating that the Teachings of the Saints were created by the Supreme Lord, not by humans. This Path was instilled within the bosom of each soul long before the existence of other paths, and even before the creation itself. The Light and Sound Teachings will be found to be incomparable and unparalleled in their composition and approach, easily transcending all relative and partial explanations of the riddle and mystery of not only oneself, but the entire cosmos as well. The highest spiritual luminaries known to our civilization, those of the past, present and upcoming future, are those who champion these Light and Sound principles of God. Such visionaries as Plato, Socrates, Plutarch, Jesus, Hafiz, Rumi, Tabriz, Nanak, Kabir, Seth Shiv Dayal Singh, Sawan Singh Ji, and Charan Singh Ji, to list a few, have all trumpeted the Light and Sound Teachings as being the highest of all, each one teaching and practicing the same principles.” (The Divine Science of Light and Sound, vol. I, 2009)

The following poetic and spiritual verses are indicative of the Sound teaching of past Light and Sound Masters:

“Great music is faintly heard; Great form has no contour; And Tao is hidden without a name. It is this Tao that is adept at lending (its power) and bringing fulfilment. (Lao Tzu, c. 6th century BC, Tao Te Ching)

“All music, based upon melody and rhythm, is the Earthly representation of heavenly music.” (Plotinus, c. 205-270 AD)

Writing in the early 17th century, Robert Fludd (1574-1637), a Christian mystic and alchemical cabalist, also indicates an awareness of the Divine Sound current: “The world is exterior, God interior; and there is nothing more interior or more present than he. He is inside everything, since all things are in him, and outside everything, since he is above all things. We should therefore pass beyond ourselves, ascending from this world to God as if struggling up from below. For to ascend to God is to enter into oneself, and not only to enter oneself but to pass, in an ineffable way, through one’s own center. Hence Mercurius Trismegistus says: ‘Whoever transcends by passing inward and penetrating within himself, he truly ascends to God’…. The soul, once the elemental parts have returned to their home, having nowhere to exercise its energies, rests from all the motions by which it used to move the body in time and space. For the instrument may perish, but the melody [Divine Sound current] does not perish, nor that which set the instrument in motion.” (Utriusque Cosmi Historia, 1617)

As mentioned, the Light and Sound spiritual teachings were the innermost teaching of the genuine ancient mystery schools. Outwardly, this was known as the ‘disciplina arcana’ and this esoteric teaching can be found in some of the apocryphal Gnostic texts. For example, the Askew and Bruce Coptic codices. According to Godfrey Higgins in his 19th century tome, Anacalypsis, “The [early] Christians had an esoteric and an exoteric religion”, and under the heading Disciplina Arcana, Robert McCoy writes: “The name given to the secret ritual and practices of the first Christian Church…. The ancient documents known as the ‘Apostolical Constitutions and Canons’ often speak of the Disciplina Arcana, or secret discipline of the most ancient church.” (A Dictionary of Freemasonry, 1869).

John W. Wright, a 19th century American researcher, makes the observation: “There are several passages in the Holy Scripture which convey the idea that some great secret…. was communicated to the apostles by Jesus during the time that he was associated with them in the flesh. All the early ‘Christian Fathers’, and a great many modern divines of high standing, believe that the ‘secret’ was made known to the apostles, with the explicit understanding that it was to be handed down to the heads of the Church until the end of time.” (Curious Facts, Myths, Legends, and Superstitions concerning Jesus, 1894)

Moreover, Benjamin Walker writes: “From the very beginnings of the new Church there was a body of doctrine stemming from John to whom, it was said, the true secrets of Christianity had been communicated by Jesus. This teaching was strongly tinged with gnosticism. The Apocryphon of John, or the secret book of John, purports to reveal the ‘mysteries concealed in silence’ that Jesus taught him. The book was cited by Irenaeus, and a version of it was also found at Nag Hammadi. Many gnostic schools claimed the canonical gospel of John as a work embodying their own doctrines, and used it as a primary source of their teachings…. It presents a mystical rather than a historical Jesus, with concepts derived from Alexandrian philosophy.” (Gnosticism: Its History and Influence, 1983)

As Joseph Leeming notes: “Every religion has two aspects – the outer or exoteric, and the inner or esoteric. The history of religions shows us that in the beginning each one centred about a spiritualised Godman or Master, one who was in close and constant unity with God. To him was given the mission of preaching the doctrine, and the power of bringing his followers into touch with the inner reality, of teaching them how they could rise up, enter the kingdom of heaven, and commune with their Creator. This esoteric form of the teachings continued as long as the Master or his spiritually advanced successors were on earth to teach and guide spiritual seekers. But when the leadership passed into the hands of those who were less spiritually advanced, and lost the spiritual presence and power of the God-man who was the original preceptor, the path lost the power of giving its followers direct and conscious contact with their Creator. Thereafter, by degrees it became largely a matter of creeds, dogmas, prayers, rites and ceremonies. Entering the kingdom of heaven then became largely a hope that might be realised after death, rather than a definite and vital personal experience here and now, made possible by the spiritual power of the living Master.” (Yoga and the Bible)

Christian O’Brien (1914-2001)

In his illuminating translation and commentary on the early Gnostic texts, the Askew and Bruce Coptic codices (2nd century AD), historical researcher Christian O’Brien writes: “The titles, Mystical Discourses and The Path of Light have been used by the present translator because the earlier, titles of Pistis Sophia and The Books of Jeu were found to be inappropriate to the overall subject matter…. The difference between the present translation and its august predecessors lies in its Mystical interpretation. The earlier translations adopted an ecclesiastical, or academic, Christian interpretation which largely ignored their Gnostic antecedents; and this orthodox approach led to many unintelligible passages with limited spiritual value. This unacceptable treatment inspired G.R.S. Mead to write his scholarly Fragments of a Faith Forgotten; but, even he, was unable to see clearly through the mist of phraseology that tends to obscure many Gnostic spiritual documents. When this mist is cleared, The Path of Light can be seen as a treatise on Spiritual Truths, consonant with the tenets of Surat Shabd Yoga [the union of soul with the Divine Sound Current]; and as revealing the narrator-Jesus of Nazareth-as the Perfect Living Master of his time.”

Christian O’Brien continues: “On the Mount of Olives, in the weeks after his Crucifixion, Jesus was preparing for his final departure from this World. He had selected twelve men, and a number of women, to form his Inner Circle of Disciples. These Apostles, as they became known, had to be taught the Spiritual Truths in the greatest detail, and had to be shown the secrets of the Higher Spiritual Planes, so that they could be deemed ‘Saints’ and be capable of continuing his work on Earth after his departure…. This esoteric knowledge, which was the real substance of Jesus’s Teachings, is stated, in this record, to have been taken down, word by word, by three disciple-scribes-Philip, Thomas and Matthew…. Jesus stated: ‘Listen Philip, you Blessed One. It is to you that I have said these words, because you and Thomas and Matthew are the hands to which it is given-by the authority of the Supreme Being-to write down all the words that I shall speak, together with all the things that I shall do; and everything that you will see’….

“In his three years of ministry, Jesus taught at two levels. His expositions in the Synagogues; in the ‘market-place’; and to the greater outer-body of disciples, form the substance of what has been called the Synoptic Gospels. Important as these are, they are greatly overshadowed by the deeper and wider, Mystical Discourses given in private to his Inner Circle of Disciples, at the close of his Mission on Earth. These Discourses were known to the Gnostic Schools of Valentinus and Basilides, and were probably collated, and edited, by them; but the fierce opposition of the early Christian Church in the second century A. D. led by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons in Gaul, whose See was far from the main centres of Gnostic Teaching (such as Alexandria)-led to the suppression of this very important record.”

O’Brien further comments: “The author of the Mystical Discourses has taken great pains to establish the authenticity of what he is writing-and this is of great importance to this study. He stresses that he has three witnesses, writing everything down, at every teaching session…. The use of Philip, Thomas and Matthew as scribal-witnesses would have been accepted as proof of authenticity among the early Gnostic readers of the Mystical Discourses, and gives credence to the claim that these Discourses are the true Gnostic New Testament recorded some six decades before the first Synoptic Gospel. The fierce opposition to the Mystical Gnostic Teachings in about the penultimate decade of the second century A. D., led by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons in Gaul, led to the ultimate suppression of this important record.”

Quoting the above mentioned Gnostic texts, which internally claim to have been recorded by members of the inner circle of Jesus, Christian O’Brien translates the following spiritual sayings attributed to Jesus: “Now, listen my disciples, and companions and brothers, when I urge you to seek the Knowledge of the Shabd Mystery [spiritual Sound Current] of the Ineffable One.”

“The mystery of the Ineffable One is the Shabd Mystery which is in all these things; and it is the only Mystery of the Ineffable One. It is the Knowledge of all these things of which I have told you, and of those which I still have to tell you…. It is the one and the same Nam of the Ineffable One…. He who receives the Supreme Nam of that Mystery with all its variations, all its forms and characteristics, and its whole organisation, receives the totality of its Mystery. I shall now speak to you of this because you are the fulfilment of all perfection, and you will complete all your knowledge of that Shabd Mystery, and all its management, because you are to be entrusted with all Initiations.”

“The Soul which has received the Shabd Mystery of the Ineffable One, will ascend to the Height, being a great outpouring of light…. Truly, I say to you that every man who receives the Shabd of the Ineffable One, and is familiar with all its forms and characteristics, he is a man in the World; but he is superior to all the Angels; and he will become much superior to them all…. He is a man in the World, but he is not of the World…. And, truly, I say to you: The man is I and I am that man.”….”And all men who have received Initiation from the Ineffable One will become fellow-Rulers with me…. because of this, I have not refrained, nor been ashamed, to call you my Brothers and Companions. These things I say to you, now, knowing that I shall give you the Secret of the Ineffable One, namely that: The Shabd is I, and I am that Shabd.”

“Seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who seeks in truth, will find; and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (The Path of Light, 1999)

In support of a possible gnostic nexus with the Light and Sound teachings, Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane in her treatise entitled The Gnostic Mystery, first published in 1992, says: “There may be a historical connection between the Gnostic tradition and the Sant tradition [Light and Sound teachings], possibly through Sufi mystics.” This author says: “In the first and second centuries of the Common Era numerous schools of thought refer to themselves as ‘Gnostic’….Although each Gnostic sect may emphasise one philosophical point over another, the fundamental aspiration always remains the same: the pursuit of gnosis; this is the common thread among all the sects. Gnosis, which in Greek simply means knowledge, is not of the intellect, or matters dealing with the everyday world; rather, gnosis refers to knowledge of the spiritual world. The highest form of gnosis would be the knowledge of the Divine – direct, experiential knowledge of God which is not taught or found in the Scriptures….The Gnostic tradition has often been associated with Christianity. Christian Gnostics claim to have the ‘true’ teachings of Jesus….There is some indication that Gnostic ideas affect many of the writings of the New Testament (especially the Gospel of John).

Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane further relates: “The most comparable strand of Indian spirituality to the Gnostic tradition is the medieval and modern Sant tradition….Resembling Gnostic metaphysics, there is a God beyond all gods, and this God invites the soul to know It. One achieves God-realization by turning within one’s own consciousness, realizing the microcosm macrocosm relationship with the Divine. A Sant is one who has accomplished this – an enlightened soul….While this tradition can clearly be traced back to the North Indian mystic Kabir in the fifteenth century C.E. (as well as Guru Nanak and Dadu), some speculate that it has even earlier roots, manifesting in the twelfth or thirteenth century.”

Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane also writes: “The Sants, emerging as heirs to a mixed tradition, can be distinguished from other followers of Indian spirituality by the emphasis they give to a practice known as surat shabd yoga, perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Sant tradition. Surat simply means spirit entity or soul, shabd refers to the sound-current and yoga, in this context, means union. Hence, it is the ancient science of joining the soul with the sound-current. This sound-current is believed to be the manifestation of the Divine that resounds in every being in creation and upholds all creation. It is also known as the ‘Audible Life Stream’, ‘Music of the Spheres’, ‘Nad’, ‘Logos’, ‘Akash Bani’, ‘Divine Melody/Harmony’, ‘Word’, ‘Light and Sound’, etc.” Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane also notes that: “Most of the Nag Hammadi literature illustrates a profound parallel between the two traditions.” [The Gnostic and the Sant]

Nag Hammadi scroll

Interestingly, in the apocryphon of James (3rd century CE): “The twelve disciples were all sitting together and recalling what the Saviour had said to each one of them, whether in secret or openly….” Also in the Gnostic Gospel according to Thomas, which originally is dated to c.50AD, it commences: “These are the secret words [which] the Living Jesus spoke.” (Source: The Nag Hammadi texts)

Writing in the 21st century, Sri Gary Olsen says: “There is a vast difference between what Jesus Christ literally stated and what the religious historians have attributed to Him. There is equal disparity between what Jesus Christ actually meant and what has been interpreted through the minds of religious authorities spanning the past two thousand years…. Jesus Christ’s original Teachings were pure, and as a genuine Master of Light and Sound, He expounded on the Light and Sound principles throughout His mission…. There is also biblical scripture which confirms the spiritual mantle being passed from John the Baptist to Jesus, and then from Jesus to Peter, verifying the Light and Sound principle that there is an ongoing line of Masters, and that there is always at least one true Master present in the world. Jesus confirmed this same principle in part when He said, ‘As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,’ clearly suggesting that His divine mission lasted only as long as His earthly incarnation. Regarding the principle of reincarnation, Jesus made it lucidly clear while talking to His disciples that Elijah had returned, and was now known as John the Baptist. Any logically thinking individual can surmise what this literal statement means.

“The text of the Bible is comprised of mere paper and ink, while the Word, or the Sound Current, is the Power that actually created all things. A close study of John 1:1 reveals this great truth, for it qualifies the differentiation between the Holy Bible and God’s Holy Word, or Sound Current. Interestingly enough, this very point lies at the core of the inevitable fate of all religions, because when their founding Saint departs, shortly thereafter the relevant scriptures are unwittingly used as a substitute for the live Presence of the absent Saint. The beauty and eloquence of these holy scriptures is unquestionable, and the wisdom within the parables so universal and enlightening, but the scriptures still remain a sterile and empty shell when directly compared to the illuminating and life-giving forces of the actual Presence of the founding Saint.” (Soul’s Divine Journey, 2010)

In his book “With a Great Master in India (1934) Julian Johnson says: “More than one Christ has come into the world and some of them are still in the body carrying on their great work. The same need and the same divine love that brought one, has brought a long succession of them. The same great Father who sent one noble son to Bethlehem has sent a great number of them to many lands and in many ages. In fact the world is never without at least one of them.”

Maharaj Sawan Singh (1858-1948)

Dr. Julian Johnson, a former American surgeon, and Initiate of the Light and Sound Master, Maharaj Sawan Singh, goes on to record his personal experience of meeting this Saint in India: “For years and years I wished I might have been with Jesus when he was on earth, to have been his disciple, following him over those Judean hills and down to Galilee and Jerusalem, watching his gracious ministry and, if possible, giving some loving service. Often in years long passed, the thought haunted me day and night. But never did I imagine it would be my good fortune to have that wish gratified in substance. But now I have only to transfer the scene from Palestine to India and change the date, and in this good year of 1933 I am walking daily by the side and sitting at the holy feet of the great living Master….

“Today I feel a sense of pity for the masses who do not appear to realize what a priceless privilege might be theirs. They are letting the golden opportunity slip by them. They do not seem to understand now, any better than they did in the days of Jesus, that a great Master is among them. They are so blinded by the god, or gods, of this world that the great light which now shines among them is quite invisible to them. Truly the light is shining into the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it. Perhaps two thousand years from now, many who read the history of our Master may look back with longing and wish they had lived in his day, so that they might have seen him and might have become his disciples. But some of my American friends will say, ‘Yes, but your Master in India is not Jesus. He is only a mere man, while Jesus was the son of God.’ Both of these assertions are due to theological misconceptions. Jesus himself never thought that he was anything above and beyond the possibilities of other men. In fact, he taught the exact contrary. Get the New Testament and read his own words, not the words of Paul, the theologian. There is not a word in the New Testament, except perhaps one or two interpolations, in which Jesus makes any claim to an exclusive, divine sonship. Such a thing was never thought of until long after his death.

“But let us say he was a son of God in a special sense. Divine sonship is the goal of all spiritual aspirations…. If Jesus became a divine son, other men can become divine sons. Why any set of theological speculators should ever limit that sonship to only one man in all human history still remains one of the mysteries. This divine sonship is exactly what makes a man a true Master. All Masters are sons of God in a special sense. They have risen to heights of spiritual unfoldment and have united their human attributes with those of the supreme one, and thus they have attained divine sonship. They are then no longer sons simply in the sense of having been created by God, but they are sons by virtue of having united their spiritual essence with that of the supreme Father. Aye, they are even more than that; they are practically identical with the Father, because of this oneness. There is no difference between them, except that the Master still resides here in the human form. This is the ultimate goal of Mastership. But it is a goal toward which all men may look, if they make themselves Masters, after the example and pattern of their own Master. It must ever be borne in mind that mastership and divine sonship are not limited to one individual on this planet, but it is an achievement within the reach of an unlimited number, running through all the ages of human history.” (With a Great Master in India)

The following comments by a German former cloistered Benedictine nun, who subsequently was initiated into the Light and Sound teachings in India, support the continuity of the incarnated Christs (the Word made flesh) throughout human history as the true representatives of the Supreme Divinity: “In his human form, however, Jesus Christ could reach only his contemporaries, but not the generation coming before or after him. What about those who had lived outside the short period when Jesus was on earth?… God has to send his Son again and again into the world, so that as a Christ he can show the way back to the Father to those souls that are allotted to him. The Word must take human form, because only in this form can he proclaim the message of the kingdom of God and redeem the souls. If it was necessary once that the Son of God, his Word, should come to earth, then it would always be necessary…. The Masters of the highest order, true Masters like Jesus Christ, are incarnations of the one Word. In this way each Master is universal…. the universal Christ is transhistorical and pre-existent to his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth. This pre-existence refers not only to his eternal being as the Word of God, but also to his position as a Christ, the anointed one…. In many of his self-testimonies, Jesus Christ transcends his earthly personage, indicating the mystery of his timeless existence, as for instance when he says ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am’….

“Jesus revealed himself as the one pre-existent to his birth, as the one who descended from heaven: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. On many pages of The Gospel According to Saint John, we can read similar self-testimonies of Jesus Christ. His most important statement is probably: ‘I and my Father are one.’ In another instance Jesus says: ‘No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son.’ Even in the face of death, Jesus still testifies that he was in the glory of the Father, which he had with him ‘before the world was’….

“The Masters also emphasize that these messengers of God, on the highest level of consciousness, are all one – they are the Word. Equally, the Masters insist that all the Masters of the highest order teach the same truth…. According to the teachings of the Masters, since the death of Jesus Christ many other incarnations of the divine Word have come down to contact the souls in this creation and to be instruments of the supreme Lord’s mercy, just as they did before Jesus. God sends all these saviours to earth to manifest his divine love for humankind.” (Adventure of Faith, 2009, by Shraddha Liertz)

To again quote Joseph Leeming: “The real work of each Master on this earth plane lasts only during his lifetime here in a human body, and ends with the end of that human lifetime. The Master assumes human form in order to do a particular work which he could not do without that form. This work is to initiate and guide the seekers who are ready for the spiritual path at the time that the Master is on earth. When the earth life of a Master ends, his work on the earth is finished, just as the work on earth of anyone else is completed. The Master continues to guide his disciples from the higher realms. But he does not initiate more disciples. That work is carried on by his successors…. It is not possible for a Master who left this earth many years ago to initiate present-day disciples and give them the training and guidance they need to make steady progress on the spiritual path. This is true, not because the Masters’ powers are limited but because human beings are limited. The Master has all the powers of the Supreme Father, at whose behest and as whose agent in the divine plan he comes to this earth. For a Master to contact us, however, and talk with us and teach us, he must assume human form. We cannot receive what he wishes to give unless he is in a human body, and can therefore communicate with us. The living Masters who now carry on the Father’s work are the modern Christs, the elder brothers and saviours of mankind.”

Leeming goes on to say: “The spiritual power of the Holy Spirit of the Supreme Father needs an outlet, a focus through which it can pass to the mind and soul of man if he is to be awakened to spiritual truth. The Spirit is everywhere present, but it must be concentrated through a special outlet to be effective on the earth plane. Electricity exists, but until it is converted and concentrated through a generator it will not flow through the wires and become effective light and power. It is the same with the Word or Holy Spirit; it must use a channel or wire through which to flow and reveal itself to those who want its light. If it is to help human beings to start the upward journey to their eternal home, it must find an outlet through another human being. Accordingly, God uses his special sons, the Masters, as the channels through which His power can flow to the seekers among mankind. As Jesus said: ‘It is not I, but my Father which is in heaven which doeth these things’…. To obtain knowledge of God we must necessarily go to one who knows God’s science and is himself proficient in it. It is only the person who has a conscious experience or realisation of God who can impart God-knowledge. Within the Master there is the one great power of God, and through him human beings can reach that power. Inwardly, the Master is at one with the universal spirit, and is entrusted with the mission of bringing individuals into direct contact with God.” (Yoga and the Bible)

Interestingly, there have been a number of theories advanced as to the true nature of the Holy Grail. Is it a cup? Is it a stone? Is it a secret book of hidden knowledge? Indeed, is it an external object at all, or are there internal ramifications? Could there be an inner spiritual dimension to the Holy Grail?

According to Sri Gary Olsen: “The Sound Current existed before anything existed, and will continue to exist when nothing appears to exist anymore. It is the unmanifest manifested, the Holy Grail, the divine elixir, the proverbial philosopher’s stone, and the supreme Life Force of the entire creation…. references to the Sound Current have been made in every culture, religion, and spiritual endeavor known throughout human history, having been termed the Word in Christian scripture, the Naad and Sruti in Vedic writings, the Shabda and Nam in Yogic Doctrine, the Path of Aton in Egyptian literature, the Udgit in the Upanishads, the Bani in the Hindu Shastras, and other qualitative names such as the Sraosha coined by Zoroaster of Persia, and the Kalma of the Sufi mystics.”

Sri Gary Olsen also says: “This wave of Light and Sound is literally God making itself known to all Its children. It is God’s language, God’s Voice, and It contains all that God has ever created. It is audible and visible to the inner spiritual senses – when you hear It, you hear the Voice of God, and when you see It, you witness the Light of God…. By studying this wave of Light and Sound, the seeker is familiarizing oneself with the creation and its modus operandi…. This Shabda, or the living Word, is the whole of the Divine Being in action. It is God in action, as distinguished from God as the Divine Being…. This Current can be visualized as a gigantic circular wave spewing forth in all directions at once, much like the ripples from a pebble landing in a pond. When the seeker is initiated into this Current great events begin to happen, for upon this wave of God all divine qualities come into manifestation…. The Audible Life Stream is the gift that the Living Master has to offer, which is nothing short of finding the Holy Grail, and It is graced only upon the reactivation of the life impulses through receiving initiation into the cosmic mysteries of the Divine.” (The Divine Science of Light and Sound, vol. I, 2009)

Regarding the spiritual perspective of the Grail theme, Anna Morduch relates: “The Grail, the Gra-al or Gra-el, the vessel of the divine, belongs to all time and all nations, and though the way of approach to it may differ according to the period, it is essentially always the same. The quest is the finding of the kingdom within, and this is not a vague and unworldly fairy-tale but an exact science taught by every one of the great teachers, the inner core of all revealed religion. The search of the alchemist, the magnum opus, is still the great work of our day, as much or more needed than ever before – the transformation of natural man into hu-man, the enlightened man. (Hu is the Celtic God of light, and the sacred sound of hu is practised in esoteric teaching in various schools.) When man is human and knows his body as the temple of God he becomes the servant of his fellow men.”(The Sovereign Adventure, 1970)

In his treatise entitled Druidism (1871) the Rev. John Williams remarks: “The Bard shows us the Christian development of the old Druidic religion, as, in speaking of the resurrection of Jesus, he says: ‘On the third day was the resurrection of Hu’, intimating that Jesus was the same as He who was regarded as God in the creed of the Druids, and whom they sometimes called Hu.” Williams also says: “The Bards themselves admit very clearly and positively that Christianity was, as it were, but the fulfilment of Druidism, the old religion brought into perfection.”

The Sufi sage, Hazrat Inayat Khan, also comments on “the hu, the most sacred of all sounds. This sound hu is the beginning and the end of all sounds…. The supreme being has been called by various names in different languages, but the mystics have known him as Hu (Arabic), the natural name not man-made, the only name of the Nameless, which all nature constantly proclaims. The sound hu is most sacred…. The word hu is the spirit of all sounds and of all words, and is hidden under them all, as the spirit in the body. It does not belong to any language, but no language can help belonging to it. This alone is the true Name of God, a Name that no people and no religion can claim their own…. This is the Word mentioned in the Bible as existing before the light came into the world: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’…. It is said in the old traditions that Zoroaster was born of a huma tree. This explains the words in the Bible: ‘Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5). In the word huma, hu represents spirit, and the word mah, in Arabic, means ‘water’. In English the word human reminds us of two facts which are characteristic of humanity-hu means ‘God’, and man means ‘mind’, which comes from the Sanskrit manah, mind being the ordinary man. In other words, Hu, God, is in all things and beings, but it is only man by whom he is known, or who is capable of knowing him. Human, therefore, means the God-conscious being, God-realized, or the God-man.” (Mysticism of Sound, 1923)

Interestingly, HU is considered a sacred mantra in the MasterPath Light and Sound spiritual teachings. Sri Gary Olsen writes: “The HU sound is actually the primal Sound, or Word, of creation. It issues forth from the Godhead Itself. All sacred scripture from the Vedas and Upanishads to the Buddhist Sutras, and even the Bible, refer to and describe the Sound Current. It is what Pythagoras called the ‘music of the spheres.’ Plato spoke of experiencing this Sound Current as well.” (Introduction to MasterPath, 2005)

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, a glory like that of the firstborn of the Father, full of grace and truth.” – Gospel according to St. John ch.1 v14 (Aramaic New Testament – Lamsa translation)

Jesus the Christ

Sri Gary Olsen

Two millennia ago, Jesus the Christ, the then true Living Master in the East, heralded the spiritual wave of the Piscean Age. Now, in the 21st century, Sri Gary Olsen, the present true Living Master, established in the West, heralds the new zodiacal cosmic wave of the Aquarian Age. From their innate true spiritual teachings can be discerned a direct continuity between these two spiritual living masters, as there is with the Piscean and Aquarian zodiacal ages.

Sri Gary Olsen writes: “The twenty-first century is seeing the true Teachings of Light and Sound emerge in America, and this ancient and direct Path back to Self and God Realization has been contemporarily coined the MasterPath for two simple reasons. First, the shining goal of all spiritual pursuit is the attainment of your own Mastership, and second, the means of accomplishment involves the discovery of the sacred Path that undeniably lies within your own inner consciousness. Each and every living being has the sacred Path situated within them. You are the way, the truth, and the life. For these reasons, this Divine Teaching is called MasterPath, for you are the Master and you are the Path. The truth that you seek is within you, and so too is the Kingdom of Heaven, as all past and present Masters have unanimously declared…. The crowning glory of all spiritual pursuit is for the individual to become a Saint oneself rather than worshiping at the feet of the Saints, to become the living embodiment of truth rather than searching for it in the ancient spiritual scriptures, and to realize that one’s own body is literally the temple of God, not the holy shrines and architectural wonders of the world.” (Soul’s Divine Journey, 2010)

If God, the Supreme Deity, is infinite, then what can possibly co-exist with God. This would, of course, include human beings. So if humans cannot, and in fact do not, co- exist with the Divine Reality, then what are we left to conclude? Is it any wonder that all the genuine Masters of spiritual truth have proclaimed that the Kingdom of God is within you. What could possibly supersede such an internal Divine Holy Grail? Clearly, Jesus the Christ was aware of this inner Divine Reality with the conscious realisation of His individual spiritual sovereignty: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life”. The only difference between the enlightened Christ and unenlightened humanity is that Jesus knew who He was and we, as yet, do not. The mission of all the true Living Masters has always been to help those souls, who were sufficiently ready to engage in applying the Light and Sound teachings in their lives, to ultimately become truly Self and God realised, being aware of their own innate Christ nature of spiritual Mastery.

In contradistinction to what are called the Canonical Gospels or scriptures, within the greater universal Canon of Truth and Righteousness all things are known and all things are revealed according to Divine spiritual truth. A proper study of the Light and Sound teachings reveals this to be so.

“For what else is Christ, but the Word, the Sound of God?” (Apocryphal Acts of Peter)

Recommended reading:

“Soul’s Divine Journey” by Sri Gary Olsen. “MasterPath: The Divine Science of Light and Sound” vol. I by Sri Gary Olsen Available from MasterPath

“With a Great Master in India” by Dr. Julian Johnson “The Path of the Masters” by Dr. Julian Johnson “Yoga and the Bible” by Joseph Leeming. “Adventure of Faith” by Shradda Liertz. Available from Science of the Soul Research Centre